IT Grand Prix Day 0 – Red Team takes the Capitol!

Welcome to Washington DC! Is what we would have heard.. err.. no, but seriously :) Hi! We are here in the Capitol as the starting point in our whirlwind tour for Charity, Non-Profits, Education, Learning, Consulting, Technology and innovation!    Also known as the IT Grand Prix sponsored by Microsoft and NPower working with non-profits and more!   Most of us arrived either last night, or this morning, but nonetheless we are all here!   So, how did we start off the day?!

Unloading at the White House?!Daniel and I on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Me and Lincoln kicking it old style! The flag of America in such majestic flow in the wind

After eventually getting from the airport to the shuttle to the hotel, I took a walk over to meet my fellow Red Team member Daniel Nerenberg and Gold Team member Susan Ibach who waited for me on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.    On the way to meet them, I did pass by the White House where I took this photo of apparently Biden taking advantage of the fact that Obama was back in my native Chicago and moving some things out! err… I mean something else entirely! Though tweeting my ‘joke’ about that resulted in a rather awkward snafu of ‘auto-correct’ gone wild :)

Get on the Bus - FrontGet on the Backpack Get on the Bus - Back Just outside the realm of the bus! oh my! 

In all, it was a good start off to what is already a fairly confusing (intentionally) adventure of working with non-profits, charities and others as we travel our way over the next several days before finally descending upon New Orleans.      For those who had not seen our ‘agenda’ so to speak, here is the breakdown of where our travels will take us:

  • Tuesday, June 1st – Washington DC
  • Wednesday, June 2nd – New York City, NY
  • Thursday, June 3rd – Houston, TX
  • Friday, June 4th – New Orleans, LA

After which point, we take a brief moment to relax before each of our respective responsibilities take charge at TechEd, whether it is running labs, working a booth, interfacing with customers, or in my case – Covering the event for the Media, Press and general community so you can get a unique perspective on stuffs, so to speak :)

 Look at me on the Front Page of the Chicago Tribune - Middle left

And if that doesn’t wrap up the day.. Enjoy this little story my good friend Jorge sent me… Notice: my little picture/name are there on the left/middle.   I guess that’d translate into.. I made it onto the Front Page of the Chicago Tribune! :)    In the meantime, if you have not already joined the Red Team! Please do so :)  It’s for our charity NetHope that we are trying to win $10,000 for!

Enjoy, and look forward to sharing the festivities and events of Days 1 and beyond for you!   Take care and talk to you soon!   – Christopher :)

Get on the bus, Magic Euro-Bus!

Hey, you remember the bus! Well, the locations have been published! Which is especially great if you’re a number of destinations along the path you will want to hook up and meet the bus along the way!

  • Milan, 26 Oct
  • Zurich, 27 Oct
  • Paris, 28 Oct
  • London, 29 Oct
  • Brussels, 30 Oct
  • Amsterdam, 2 Nov
  • Frankfurt, 3 Nov
  • Munich, 4 Nov
  • Vienna, 5 Nov
  • Prague, 6 Nov
  • Berlin, 9 Nov

 

Host a Career Express and/or a TechEd EMEA community event!

The best part of the tour are the local stops the Career Express makes at training partners and community events. On the Career Express USA tour in May, we stopped at a luau thrown by a partner, high schools, and colleges. What do you get when you host an event?

1) Company profile promoted on Get On The Bus Tour website

2) Event resources to facilitate local event in your area as part of Get On The Bus Tour stop

3) Increased visibility with TechEd EMEA registrants and/or attendees

4) Technical training on Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

If you would like to host a local event, we are taking applications until August 18. For more details, download the application form here: Bus Tour EMEA Event Application Form

Why yes, much of this was hijacked from Born to Learn, but hey! I had a lot invested in that trip and I equally want to see this one be successful! So get out there! Be a hosting location, or visit one of the hosting locations, it’ll be an experience unlike no other!

Get On The Bus Strikes Back!

Get On The Bus Strikes Back!

*Heavy Breathing* Ken, I am your father, err, Sorry about that.. but welcome back the BUS, Euro-style!

That’s right! For those of you who missed it the first time, this time it’s back, and more euro than ever!   But what does this mean?

Oh, I have no idea! But my thoughts are, a rocking cross-multi-country bus tour across Europe which if you knew about the first tour at all… should ROCK!   More details will come as I find out about them!

Watch this page for updates, and find out how you can join us on the bus for a free trip to TechEd Europe! Oh, and watch my blog for my take on things too!

Career Express Day 3 Tony Luke’s and the Liberty Bell

I’m going to take liberty with this post (Doh!) but seriously! I wish these photos came out better, but I’ll go with what I have which are the best of those I’ll be selecting!

Tony Lukes and one of our drivers Visitor! IT Professionals in Philly meet, greet and eat?! Everybodies smiling! I know I was! What a great family/friends shot!

We finished up eating, meeting and greeting at Tony Luke’s and proceeded on to the Liberty Bell and more! We were fortunate to have our wonderful walking guide @Krosen to take us on a tour in the drizzly sunday evening!

Our nations monuments.. available during the daytime.  Doh! @chrisrue almost gets killed crossing this street when the Guards wihstles went off! Hmm, where's my delorean?!

You know that old saying, give me liberty or give me death.   I’ll take Liberty, kthx!

Hmm, liberty in the sky!  Let there be liberty! Give me liberty, or give me a double door entrance way!

After this point, we walked around and saw some great sights, had some amazing laughs, to the potential tune of Sarah being in tears of laughter! Oh, and Robots.. WTF, why are there robots on the street everywhere in philly?!   Time to crash! Have to meet with some great kids in the morning for yet another wondrous day on the Bus!

Career Express Day 1 Atlanta Pre-Events, Loading Bus and Intros

Wow, it’s early! After going to sleep at 2AM last night, I was back up again at 4AM!

Our morning so far consisted of loading the bus with all of the schwag for the trip! What’s that you say? A massive bus loaded with 14,000 pieces of schwag?!? Needless to say we have a lot of stuff for this long journey!

Once it gets light out, I’ll provide some pictures… ?Video?! of the bus, but until that point, I’ll focus more on the actual peoples who are here on the bus!

At this moment, the bus happens in addition to 6 Microsoft Employees from the MSLearning team, another contest winner Chris Rue!

The MS Team itself consists of Ken, Dana, Liberty, Sarah, Elese, Maggie, Ryan!

As things progress, I’ll provide more content including Interviews with folks, and a special video interview with Chris Rue at some point! Until that time… we’re rolling on the road now, so we’re off now to…United States Army School of Information Technology, in Fort Gordon, GA, 8:30am – 11:00am

Also Be sure to join us at:

Until later, here we go rolling on to Fort Gordon!

Here is a picture of Chris Rue featuring the bus! And the rest of the MSLearning getting their Starbucks fix! Can’t get the Seattle out of them! ;)

Chris Rue shows us the Career Express! @MSLearning at Starbucks getting their morning fix!